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Snap CEO Evan Spiegel.
- At least three female Snap employees were reportedly given bumper severance deals last year after staff complained that a round of layoffs disproportionately affected women.
- The Wall Street Journal said employees raised their concerns in a letter and Snap agreed to compensate the three women over and above their severance deals.
- A Snap spokeswoman denied that gender played any role in the restructuring of the company in March last year, and said that the majority of employees fired were men.
- A former Snap engineer sent an email last year saying the work culture was "toxic" and "sexist."
Snap paid out bumper settlements to at least three female employees during major layoffs last year after staff wrote to the company asking why so many women on their team were fired, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Snap laid off 218 employees in March 2018, with concerns raised about the fact that six of the nine employees let go from the growth and design teams were women, sources told the Journal. Snap later confirmed these figures to Business Insider.
When some of these employees wrote to ask Snap why a high number of the fired workers were female, Snap offered at least three of the women extra cash settlements and shares on top of their severance packages.
Some men also received additional severance benefits, the Journal added. The other three of the six women were given opportunities in other areas of the company.
When contacted by Business Insider, a Snap spokeswoman said: "The company-wide restructuring we implemented in the first half of 2018 impacted both men and women.
"In fact, the majority of the people impacted were men. The decisions we made when determining the people impacted had absolutely nothing to do with gender." She said 70% of the 218 employees axed were men.
In May last year, Cheddar reported on an email sent by a former Snap engineer saying that the company exhibited a "toxic" and "sexist" work culture. Snap told Cheddar that 13% of its tech roles were held by women, and that 22% of its directors and more senior managers were women.